Me: I mention a squelin’ pig and y’all scatter like chickens.

Prodigal: I am here.

Me: Well, you get to hear the story then.

This is from the book God’s Best for You by Marilyn Morgan Helleberg

A few years ago, I interviewed a crusty old Nebraska farmer who had barely eked his way through the blistering dust bowl years of the Great Depression. Time and time again, his crops failed for lack of rainfall. At other times, when there had been enough rain to give his wheat a good start, hoards of grasshoppers came in the middle of the night and leveled his crop to the ground. During many of those years, the man’s wife had to take in washing and ironing to keep the family afloat. But never once did Charlie consider giving up. Come spring, he was always out there again, plowing, planting, and praying. When I asked how how he held on through all of those hardships, he said, “Well, I’ll tell ya what, ma’am. You just grab ahold of failure by the tail–like a squealin’ pig, y’see–and you don’t turn loose of her till she gives you a gift.”

When I pressed him further, he chewed on his cigar for a bit and then explained his philosophy. If you look hard enough, he reasoned, there’s always something in every failure that you can use. “Maybe it’s a little bit of know-how that ya didn’t have before,” he explained. “Or maybe that failure gave ya more time to spend with the Missus and the kids, so’s you got to know’em better. Or could be that somethin’ deep down inside of ya grew a little bit by findin’ out you could make it through a tight spot.”

Psalm 30:1

I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org